The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus for printing on a print medium using print data received from a host device.
When a conventional image forming apparatus starts receiving a print job, the conventional image forming apparatus recognizes a data string thus received as one print job when a termination code appears in the data thus received or the conventional image forming apparatus does not receive data for a specific period of time. (refer to Patent Reference).    Patent Reference: Japanese Patent Publication No. 2004-272765
The termination code includes a UEL (Universal Exit Language) code of a PJL (Printer Job Language), a termination code (for example, a CTRL-D code in a case of the PostScript language) in an arbitrary PDL (Page Description Language), and the likes.
The conventional image forming apparatus described above is generally provided with a direct printing function of a PDF (Portable Document Format) file and a direct printing function of an EPS (Encapsulated Post Script) file, i.e., an image format widely used for a DTP (Desktop Publishing) application.
The PDF file or the EPS file does not include a recognizable termination code. Accordingly, when the PDF file or the EPS file is received from a host device using the direct printing function, the conventional image forming apparatus does not find the termination code. Instead, the conventional image forming apparatus determines that the termination code of the print job is found after the PDF file or the EPS file is received and the data are not received for a specific period of time.